Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in an intensive care unit in a Milan clinic, according to reports from several Italian media. The 86-year-old was admitted to the San Raffaele Hospital with cardiovascular problems. writes the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera. The medical team ordered a computer tomography and Berlusconi is now waiting for further examinations.
The billionaire, media entrepreneur and four-time former prime minister has had to be treated repeatedly for illness in recent years. Berlusconi was released last Thursday after a four-day stay at the San Raffaele hospital. Now he had to go back into inpatient treatment.
Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, which he has chaired since its inception almost 30 years ago, is part of the Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia. Berlusconi himself is not a minister, but he is a member of the Senate, Italy’s second chamber of parliament.
He became Prime Minister for the first time in 1994, but had to give up the office a year later. He returned to power in 2001 and again in 2005 and 2008. His entire tenure was overshadowed by various scandals.